A UNIQUE 3-MODULE LEARNING JOURNEY TOWARDS RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AND GNH
Starting November 11, 2020
Join for any or all of the following modules:
MODULE 1: November 11, 2020 – March 27, 2021: On-line programme of study, webinars and support.
MODULE 2: Apr 8 - 16, 2022: 9 day learning journey in Bhutan, with the Gross National Happiness Centre, Bhutan.
MODULE 3: July 25 - 31, 2022: 7 day residential programme at Windhorse Farm, Nova Scotia, Canada:
With Julia Kim, Julie Richardson, Jim Dresher and guests
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A collaboration between
Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan and Windhorse Farm in Nova Scotia, Canada Join us for a nine month transformative learning journey that aims to align your livelihood with a deeper sense of purpose, one that is in service of the well-being of people and planet - by putting the vision and principles of Gross National Happiness (GNH) into practice in your own life. |
During this programme we will explore what is wrong with our current system and why it is not delivering well-being for people and planet, particularly in the light of the global disruptions in health, social care and economic systems. We will look at the seeds of new possibilities in these times of unprecedented change, what are our priorities and what it is we need to let go of in order for the new to emerge. We will search for the path towards our own right livelihood.
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Participants will visit inspiring projects, people and sacred places in Bhutan and Canada. We will take a deep dive into the rich culture and ecology of the Himalayas, learning about Bhutan’s daring experiment of Gross National Happiness - and exploring how this can be a source of inspiration and action at both a personal and country level. After a period of peer learning and experimentation, we will reunite at Windhorse Farm, Nova Scotia, where we will explore one of Canada’s oldest acadian forests (Forest Wapane'kati), and learn from First Nations elders. We will reconnect with indigenous ways of knowing, and discover the importance of rites of passage in enabling moments of deep transition in our lives in the context of global disruption and transformation. We will also learn about modern day experiments in GNH and other wellbeing approaches being applied in Canada and other countries beyond Bhutan.
This will be an inspirational, transformative and action-orientated journey towards developing a prototype of your own GNH inspired project, plan, or pathway to right livelihood. Throughout, you will be supported by a community of peers, facilitators and experts. Participants may already have a high level vision of a project or path that they would like to follow but are seeking the support, expertise or simply the space and grace to make it happen. This programme will appeal to those seeking new directions in response to recent shocks and changes to lives and livelihoods, and those seeking ways of living more aligned with their inner values and sense of purpose in the world. This could, for example, include graduate students who sense the limitations of what they have learned in their formal studies, people in professional situations who feel misaligned with the values and practices of their places of work, those who are looking for a meaningful and active retirement, and people at a cross-roads looking for a more purposeful and rewarding direction. The Right Livelihood Programme will be based around participant’s projects and action-learning and will take place within the overall framework of Theory U. |
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OVERVIEW OF GNH CENTRE PROGRAMS
Programme structure
The online module and two residential modules (Bhutan and Canada) are designed to complement and build on each other. In addition, for those who need greater flexibility, or are unable to join the whole program, each module can be taken independently as a stand-alone program.
The online module and two residential modules (Bhutan and Canada) are designed to complement and build on each other. In addition, for those who need greater flexibility, or are unable to join the whole program, each module can be taken independently as a stand-alone program.
Wellbeing in the TIme of Covid-19: A Panel Discussion with Julia Kim, Julie Richardson, Jim Drescher and Yannick Beaudoin.
MODULE 1 "On-line Program Launch"
Exploring Wellbeing and Right Livelihood, November 11, 2020 - March 27, 2021
We will launch our program with this online program on November 11th, which marks the birthday of the 4th King of Bhutan, who brought the gift of the GNH vision to Bhutan and the world. In this on-line module we will explore what is wrong with our current system, with a particular focus on what has been revealed by the COVID19 pandemic and associated crises in our economy, communities and care systems. You will be introduced to alternative approaches, including Gross National Happiness (GNH) which places the health and well-being of people and planet at the centre of the economy. Participants will engage in intimate and interactive online conversations with our invited guest teachers and be given the opportunity to reflect on how to re-orientate their lives and livelihoods in service of the well-being of people and planet.
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This module will take place on-line and will include study, webinars, assignments , group discussion and support.
Indicative syllabus
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MODULE 2: "Connecting to Source"
Leadership, inner transformation and social change. 9 day learning journey in Bhutan with the GNH Centre
Apr 8 - 16, 2022
Participants will have the opportunity to experience first hand the beauty, vibrant culture and pristine natural environment of Bhutan and learn about the experiment of Gross National Happiness at a personal, organizational, and national level. How can the vision and values of GNH translate into individual and collective action that promotes the wellbeing of all life? And how can we cultivate the inner qualities or “happiness skills” that ancient wisdom traditions (and now scientific research) indicate can be enhanced through regular practice?
We will explore the relationship between our own personal journey of inner transformation and the wider social change that we would like to bring into the world. What do we need to let go of for the seeds of new possibility to emerge in our lives and livelihoods? We will explore how to cultivate these seeds towards developing a ‘prototype’ for our Right Livelihood project, plan or work.
Indicative Syllabus
We will explore the relationship between our own personal journey of inner transformation and the wider social change that we would like to bring into the world. What do we need to let go of for the seeds of new possibility to emerge in our lives and livelihoods? We will explore how to cultivate these seeds towards developing a ‘prototype’ for our Right Livelihood project, plan or work.
Indicative Syllabus
- Exploring Gross National Happiness in Bhutan and its applications at a personal, organizational and national level
- Visiting inspiring projects, people and sacred spaces, connecting with places of highest potential
- From inner transformation to social change: Transforming the “poisons of the mind”, generating Loving Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity as a basis for a healthy inner life and social organisation
- Cultivating personal and collective happiness skills: mindfulness and compassion; deep listening
- Connecting to source through solo time in nature, including Mountain pilgrimage to explore seeds of new possibilities
- Case clinics – deepening peer to peer support in addressing emerging opportunities and challenges as participants develop their Right Livelihood plans, projects or prototypes
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MODULE 3: "Taking Root"
Prototyping and Deepening Right Livelihood, 7 day residential at Windhorse Farm, Nova Scotia, Canada
July 25 - 31, 2022
This module will be hosted by Windhorse Farm in Canada and co-created according to the interests of participants. There will be opportunities for participants to share their ‘prototype’ of their Right Livelihood project, plan or path supported by peers, facilitators and external experts. We will have a chance to deepen our understanding of how GNH and other wellbeing approaches are being applied in Canada and other countries beyond Bhutan. This is a time for sharing, celebrating and supporting each other as our aspirations begin to take root and take shape in the outer world. What are the inner and outer resources and practical skills we need to nurture our own wellbeing and support others as we move forward on our Right Livelihood journey?
Indicative syllabus
- Refreshing our understanding of GNH and deepening our understanding of how Wellbeing and other Beyond GDP initiatives are taking root in Canada and other countries
- Learning about life transitions from indigenous ways of knowing from Canada’s first nation elders
- Developing and sharing our Right Livelihood ‘prototypes’
- Identifying needs and sharing gifts
- Developing our creative Right Livelihood community and support network
- Celebration and going forth
TEACHERS
Dr. Julia Kim
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Dr. Julia Kim
Dr. Julia Kim is the Program Director of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre Bhutan. She joined the GNH Centre in 2013, after serving as a member of the International Expert Working Group for a New Development Paradigm, convened by the Royal Government of Bhutan. Through local and international partnerships, the GNH Centre leads initiatives that promote a more happy, equitable and sustainable world - based on New Economics principles, alternative progress measures, the growing science of wellbeing, and sustainable development. Prior to living in Bhutan, Julia worked as a medical doctor and HIV researcher in Africa and Asia, before serving with the United Nations (UNDP and UNICEF) in New York. She brings a background in programs, policy, and research in the fields of global health and sustainable development, and is also an Associate of the Presencing Institute – a global network that views the integration of compassion and mindfulness-based practices as a core capacity of 21st-century innovation and leadership. Julia holds degrees from the University of Manitoba, Cornell University, Tufts University, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. |
Julie Richardson
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Julie Richardson
Julie is an educator and facilitator in transformative educational experiences that enable participants to connect with their deeper inner purpose in service of happiness and well-being of people and planet. She is currently undertaking doctoral research into economies of well-being at the University of Plymouth, UK. Previously she was Senior Lecturer in Holistic Economics at Schumacher College in England where she co-created the postgraduate programme in Economics for Transition, the Right Livelihood Programme, the Gross National Happiness Master Class and the Transitioning towards an Ecological Civilisation: Dialogues East and West. She has over 20 years international experience working across a range of sectors and organizations covering different aspects of sustainable development in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. This includes teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of London and in the African and Asian School at the University of Sussex. She has worked as a senior environmental policy advisor to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in the UK and as Principal Sustainability Officer for Jonathon Porritt’s Forum for the Future. Here her work included advising the business sector on how to incorporate sustainability issues into their corporate strategy including measuring and reporting their wider social and environmental impacts. Her co-authored book, The Triple Bottom Line: Does It All Add Up? highlights a fresh approach to organizational performance that takes account of environmental, social and economic impacts. |
Jim Drescher
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Jim Drescher
In his 50 years as an entrepreneur, Jim has experienced success and failure, and he has discovered that great learning comes from both. He is a naturalist with a Master's Degree in Ecology to support his seven decades of nature observation. As a forester, farmer, construction worker and business person, he has considerable experience in how things are built — and how they grow naturally. As a student, practitioner and teacher of mindfulness-awareness meditation, he knows inner leadership work. For the past 30 years, Windhorse Farm has been his practice ground: in business, in community and in the rocks and flowing water of a pristine forested landscape. As a teacher, mentor, coach and organizational change artist, Jim's work now focuses on leadership and culture change with individuals, and with a variety of groups and enterprises. The particular flavour of his work arises out of his experience in forming — and being formed by — Windhorse Farm (windhorsefarm.org). |
GUEST TEACHERS
David Suzuki
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David Suzuki
Award-winning geneticist and broadcaster David Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990. In 1975, he helped launch and host the long-running CBC Radio’s, Quirks and Quarks. In 1979, he became familiar to audiences around the world as host of CBC TV’s The Nature of Things, which still airs new episodes. From 1969 to 2001, he was a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, and is currently professor emeritus. He is widely recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology and has received numerous awards for his work, including a UNESCO prize for science and a United Nations Environment Program medal. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada. He has 29 honorary degrees from universities in Canada, the US and Australia. For his support of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, Suzuki has been honoured with eight names and formal adoption by two First Nations. "When we forget that we are embedded in the natural world, we also forget that what we do to our surroundings we are doing to ourselves" |
Khenpo Sonam Bumdhen
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Khenpo Sonam Bumdhen
Born in Tangsibji, Bhutan. He serves as the Secretary of Monastic Education, in the Central Monastic Body of Bhutan and a Board Member of the GNH Centre Bhutan. Prior to that, he was appointed Director of Research and Libraries in Bhutan’s Central Monastic Body. He began his monastic training at Tango Buddhist College under the guidance of His Holiness the 68th Je Khenpo Thrizur Tenzin Dhendup. He bridges both eastern and western wisdom traditions, having completed his MA in Tibetan Buddhist Studies from Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in India, and a subsequent MA in Contemplative World Religion from Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado, USA. |
Nipun Mehta
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Nipun Mehta
Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace, an incubator of projects that works at the intersection of volunteerism, technology and gift-economy. What started as an experiment with four friends in the Silicon Valley has now grown to a global ecosystem of over 500,000 members that has delivered millions of dollars in service for free. Nipun has received many awards, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Dalai Lama's Unsung Hero of Compassion, Goi Peace Award in 2019. Few years ago, President Barack Obama appointed him to a council on poverty and inequality. Nipun is routinely invited to share his message of "giftivism" to wide ranging audiences, from inner city youth in Memphis to academics in London to international dignitaries at the United Nations; his speech at UPenn commencement in May 2012 was read by millions. He serves on the advisory boards of the Seva Foundation, the Dalai Lama Foundation, and Greater Good Science Center. |
Kaira Jewel Lingo
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Kaira Jewel Lingo
A Dharma teacher and ordained nun of 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, Kaira Jewel Lingo now leads retreats internationally, offering mindfulness programs for educators, parents and youth in schools, activists, people of color, artists, and families, in addition to individual spiritual mentoring. She explores the interweaving of art, play, ecology and embodied mindfulness practice and is a certified yoga teacher and InterPlay leader. She edited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children and has been published in numerous other books and magazines. She graduates from the 4-year Spirit Rock Teacher Training in 2020. |
Yannick Beaudoin
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Yannick Beaudoin
Yannick Beaudoin is Director-General for Ontario and Northern Canada with the David Suzuki Foundation. He brings a ‘new economics for transition’ lens to the organization to enable the transformation of Canada towards social and ecological sustainability. Until recently, he was Chief Scientist of GRID-Arendal, a center collaborating with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, located in Norway. From circular economy to the Sustainable Development Goals, he has worked to enable context-relevant sustainability approaches all over the world. He applies a science of change and participatory social processes to a variety of themes that include: adaptation to uncertain climate futures; embedding of local, traditional and indigenous knowledge in policy-, decision- and choice-making; enabling conversations and innovation for new development and economic paradigms; promoting a transition to a sustainable relationship between society and Nature. Activities involve working with governments, local communities, industry, academia and other actors to design societal systems, processes and approaches that increase human well-being while preserving and enhancing Nature. Most recently, Yannick has been facilitating conversations with decision makers around the world, highlighting various examples of beyond-GDP economics and post-extractivistic development paradigms. Yannick holds a Phd in Marine Geology from the University of Toronto and an Masters in Economics for Transition from Schumacher College/University of Plymouth in the UK. |
PROGRAM FEES
MODULE 1 - USD $990
NOVEMBER 11, 2020 - MARCH 27, 2021
Registration deadline: Sept 30, 2020
On-line programme of study, webinars and support.
The cost of the programme includes on-line study program, materials, webinars, assignments, discussion and support.
The cost of the programme includes on-line study program, materials, webinars, assignments, discussion and support.
MODULE 2 - USD $3,950
Apr 8 - 16, 2022
A 9 day learning journey in Bhutan, with the Gross National Happiness Centre, Bhutan.
The cost of the programme, includes course fees and materials, accommodation, food and local transport in Bhutan. It does not include travel to Bhutan, or personal health and travel insurance.
The cost of the programme, includes course fees and materials, accommodation, food and local transport in Bhutan. It does not include travel to Bhutan, or personal health and travel insurance.
MODULE 3 - USD $2,550
July 25 - 31, 2022
A 7 day residential programme at Windhorse Farm, Nova Scotia, Canada
The cost of the programme includes course fees and materials, accommodation, food and local transport. It does not include travel to Canada, or personal health and travel insurance.
The cost of the programme includes course fees and materials, accommodation, food and local transport. It does not include travel to Canada, or personal health and travel insurance.
There is a small bursary fund available.
If you would like to apply for the whole course or individual modules, please complete and submit the registration form. We’ll contact you about payment instructions. If you have any further questions, please contact Julia Kim or Julie Richardson
If you would like to apply for the whole course or individual modules, please complete and submit the registration form. We’ll contact you about payment instructions. If you have any further questions, please contact Julia Kim or Julie Richardson
